By AFP Staff
According to multiple reports, the new $550 billion infrastructure bill being advanced by the Senate is loaded with all sorts of projects, some good, some totally unrelated to real infrastructure in the country.
CNBC provided a detailed list of some of the projects that the measure will fund:
• Roads and bridges: $110 billion in new funding will be allocated toward roads, bridges and other major projects. That includes $40 billion for bridge repair and replacement, which the White House touts as the largest such investment since the New Deal-era interstate highway system, and $17.5 billion for unspecified “major projects.” The deal will also reauthorize a bipartisan surface transportation program for the next five years.
• Road safety: The deal puts $11 billion toward reducing car crashes and fatalities, including through a “Safe Streets for All” program. It will also double the funding that is sent to other programs that improve road safety.
• Public transit: The plan allocates $39 billion to modernize public transit and improv access for people with disabilities. The investment—the largest of its kind in U.S. history, the White House says—will replace thousands of buses and other transit vehicles with zero-emission upgrades.
• Passenger and freight rail: The deal would invest $66 billion to eliminate Amtrak’s backlog, modernize trains and expand service.
• Electric vehicles and buses: The plan includes $15 billion in spending for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, electric buses and transit.
• An estimated $1 billion would also be put toward a program to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure. The White House notes, for instance, that parts of the highway system were built through black neighborhoods.
• Airports, ports and waterways: The bill dedicates $17 billion toward port infrastructure and $25 billion toward airports.
• Water infrastructure: The plan includes $50 billion for investment in weatherization and protection against environmental disasters like droughts and floods.
• Clean water: The plan has $55 billion in funding for clean drinking water, which includes replacing all the country’s lead pipes and service lines.
• High-Speed Internet: The deal includes $65 billion in spending for broadband internet infrastructure.
• Environmental clean-up: The plan includes $21 billion in funding for environmental remediation, including cleaning up superfund sites, reclaiming abandoned mine land and capping abandoned oil and gas wells.
• Power infrastructure: The plan includes $73 billion to shift the country from fossil fuels to clean energy. It invests in updated power infrastructure and research in technology like nuclear, carbon capture and clean hydrogen.
Yeah, now that the USD is about to turn into confetti, sky’s the limit on promises. Of course nothing infrastructure-wise will be completed. One by one, each project will be diminished or go into the dust bin. You see folks, the libtards are fully armed with how to promulgate something into law, then proceed not to fund it or build a minimalist function into it so the whole idea or intention, eventually collapses. Law after law, this has been the pattern be it the Foreign Agent Registration Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Et cetra Things have gotten so out of hand that the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 tried to correct those statutory laws that cannot be enforced. In the simplest terms, passing federal laws that require other levels of government to obey them without providing any (or insufficient funding) to do so.